Alfredo Bini (b. 1975, Italy) is a freelance photojournalist whose work has been published in Paris Match, El Pais, National Geographic, Italy and the New York Times among others. His project Transmigrations is about the journey of African migrants through the Sahara desert. It has been published in African and Black Diaspora by DePaul University and Harvard University in the New Geographies Journal. It won several prizes and has been exhibited worldwide in festivals and solo exhibitions. Land Grabbing or Land to Investors? was selected for the 24th Visa Pour l’Image in Perpignan, the 12th China Pingyao International Photography Festival and Photoville. It was recently released as a video documentary. Alfredo is represented by the French agency Cosmos.

About the Photograph:

“Lopiso Lagebocomes is from Kambata, a small town 800 km from Metahara, in the Southern part of Ethiopia. For Lopiso, work starts at 5 A.M. when the plantation is set on fire, and as soon as it cools down, he enters the field and starts cutting cane, finishing at 12 or 1 o’clock. He cuts up to five tons of sugar cane a day and earns 80 cents. The company recruits the entire work force around his home town, where land shortage drives the workers to emigrate. In order to boost sugar and biofuel production, the management of government-owned Metahara sugar factory, has confiscated over twenty thousand hectares of land inhabited by the Afar people, causing discontent among those who refuse to move their village to make room for the plantations.”

“The financial risk to the companies involved in Land Grabbing is almost nonexistent. Governments, motivated by food security concerns, allocate the initial funds to be invested overseas. The EU provides funding to other companies that will produce materials overseas that make it possible to comply with EU green policies for bio fuel production. The World Bank and the IMF also provide companies with funding, and it is possible to purchase insurance against loss that may result from stability issues in the country where the funds are invested. These land use decisions are made far away from the land itself, and even further from the people whose lives and livelihoods are rooted in the land. To investigate these issues in Ethiopia was a natural choice because it is a country where more than six million people survive because of UN food aid, while it exports agricultural products cultivated on land leased to foreign investors.”

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Luke Duggleby (b. 1977, UK) is a British freelance documentary photographer based in Bangkok. His work has been published in National Geographic Magazine, GEO, The Guardian Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Smithsonian and TIME. Over the years Luke’s pictures have been recognized in global competitions such as POYi, PDN Annual, IPA Awards, DAYS Japan, Photo Philantropy Awards, Px3 and as Environmental Photographer of the Year. His second book about salt making places will be published in 2015 by Mare, Germany. Luke is represented by Redux Pictures in New York.

About the Photograph:

“I had just spent a week documenting the ancient salt caravan in the Dankil Depression in the Afar Province of Northern Ethiopia. Loving Ethiopia I decided to stay a bit longer and document the ancient land of Tigray, which sits next door to Afar. An ancient land and completely different place, with unique people, landscape and culture. The province often feels like you have stepped back in time. Without any particular angle in mind my fixer and I spend several weeks driving around the Province, drawn to the fascinating rock-hewn churches that dot the landscape. I am not a religious person but find religion fascinating. It was Christmas Eve and my fixer told me of a remote church that was holding a ceremony the next day. Ethiopia is an Orthodox Christian country and celebrates Christmas Day in January, but our Christmas Day happened to fall on the birthday of this particular Church’s saint. After gaining permission from the Priest we were told to return at 4 am the following morning.”

“In the early morning people were already congregating in the shadows of the church. Wrapped in white shawls and reading silently from tiny prayer books the whole atmosphere was mysterious. Inside the thousand year old church were hundreds of people, rocking in prayer, playing music and being blessed by red robe clad priests holding enormous bibles. After the main service had finished inside everyone went outside where the priests began to bless the congregation with holy water. This photograph was taken as the crowds began to assemble to receive the water that was propelled at them so fast by the Priest at the microphone it must have stung their faces.”

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Michael Tsegaye (b. 1975, Ethiopia) graduated from the School of Fine Arts and Design in Addis Ababa, and subsequently found his passion in photography. He has worked with international publications such as Der Spiegel, Jeune Afrique, and enorm; as well as the press agencies Bloomberg and Reuters. Michael has exhibited in various galleries in New York, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Morocco, Canada, Amsterdam, Mali, Miami, and Sao Paulo. His work can be found in a number of international magazines and various including Snap Judgments: New Directions in African Photography, edited by Okwui Enwezor, and published by the International Center for Photography in New York City in 2007.

About the Photograph:

“This photo was taken from a low-flying plane just outside Addis Ababa—I was on my way to the eastern border of Ethiopia for an assignment. The backbone of the Ethiopian economy is agriculture, and for centuries this has meant the rural landscape is made up of small farms of one or two hectares, planted with a diversity of crops at any given point of the year. In recent years, the Ethiopian government has aggressively introduced programs to transform Ethiopian agriculture into large-scale commercial farming enterprises. These small farms are going to disappear soon.”

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Sarah Elliott (b.1984, USA) is a graduate of Parson’s School of Design with a BFA in Photography. Her stories include post election violence in Kenya, renewed fighting in DRC and maternal health challenges in Ethiopia. Sarah has interned for James Nachtwey and assisted Stanley Greene. Her photographs have been published in The New York Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, Stern, Men’s Vogue, Monocle and others. She is a founding member of Razon Collective, an international group of visual storytellers pursuing stories independently. Sarah was chosen as a winner for the 2010 Magenta Flash Forward Competition of Emerging Photographers will be a participant for the 2010 World Press Joop Swart Masterclass which will take place in Amsterdam in October.

About the Photograph:

“The women in the photographs are from diverse ethnic groups including the Dorze, Konso, Mursi, Bume and Hamer tribes. Even with the presence of missionaries, and the growth of tourism in Ethiopia the tribes of the Omo Valley are generally isolated from the modern world and have continued according to their own unique culture, following their own customs and traditions. The Bume women wear a large number of bead strands in varying bright colors and unique designs, and the Hamer women utilize cowri shells in their jewelry and when they are married wear thick metal necklaces around their necks. As much as I was in awe of their unique decoration and adornment the women of the Omo Valley were equally as drawn what I was wearing…my zebra print Converse All-Stars, my black nail polish, and my reflective sunglasses. I couldn’t help but wonder if their interest in my ‘modern’ adornment was a metaphor for their future?”

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Mariella Furrer (b. 1968, Swiss & Lebanese) has lived in Africa her whole life. She attended the Documentary Photography & Photojournalism Program at the International Center of Photography in NYC (1993), and has since been working as a freelance photojournalist based between Kenya and South Africa. She has covered Africa extensively and has worked on stories in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Mariella has been awarded grants from the 3P Foundation, France and the Hasseleblad Foundation, Sweden. She has received an Honorable Mention from Unicef Photo of the Year 2005 and has been nominated for the Santa Fe Prize for Photography 2006. Mariella has been documenting child sexual abuse in South Africa for the past six years, which will be published in book form.

About the Photograph:

“Desta Ayanew has suffered from trachoma, for decades, waits to have her eyelids operated on during an eye camp at the Fires Wega Health Post. Trachoma is a highly infectious disease, which affects the eyelids, inverting them and causing the eye lashes to scratch the cornea. Desta who has gone blind due to trachoma keeps her eyes shut almost permanently because blinking is too painful. Her eyes are tearing constantly and she has streaks down her face from the salt left over when her tears have dried up. Her son and his wife and children look after her. The eye camp for trachoma was organized by the district health department. I loved working on this story, firstly because Ethiopia is an amazing country, and secondly because although I had grown up in Africa I had never heard of trachoma before. For me, this was a great story to highlight because trachoma, although a highly infectious disease is in fact very easy to treat and to prevent – if there is adequate funding.”

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About...

Photographer and photo editor Geoffrey Hiller has created Verve Photo to feature photographs and interviews by the finest contemporary image makers today. Verve Photo is a reminder of the power of the still image. Verve Photo will also point you to new photo agencies, publications, and inspiring multimedia projects.